Well I guess my social environment and my children's knowledge is not the norm. Because they do know a lot about the safety and the basic workings of the computers. And even though we are a mac house we have both so they don't get left behind. They are always involved in any conversations we have about anything that happens with technology. Their school is also very involved with this type of education. And DD's high school is even moreso. To me it's part of the responsibility that comes with computers, Internet usage and any iDevice they may have access too. They understand the fundamentals. They are aware of their surroundings. And I have no doubt the older they get the more they will learn. The same way I did. My point is I think this article really is behind the times. Most high school kids these days have way more understanding about computers than 70% of the people around me at that time. In fact I'm pretty sure I was 1 of 3 students in my entire school that had my level of understanding.

If you saw the level of technology my kids will be using in high school it would probably floor you. And they will have basic understanding of computer programming (DD already does) with thanks to the classes available to them.

So my next question is how did this person come to understand all that they do? I can hazard a guess it wasn't from being sat down and taught. I can hazard a guess it was no different to me, your social environment and playing. And not only do our kids get to play. But they also get to google. And follow newsfeed, blogs, forums, tumblr, reddit etc.

Geek is mainstream baby. Embrace it.